


a particular curiosity

by ultraviolence



Category: Fate/Grand Order, Fate/Prototype: Fragments of Sky Silver, Fate/stay night & Related Fandoms
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Biting, It's Not Gay If It's Just Yourself, It's Not Selfcest If It's SELF-LOVE, Kissing, Lancer Arthur, M/M, Making Out, Marking, Neck Kissing, Selfcest, Unresolved Sexual Tension, down the sin hole we go lads, everyone says I should bi myself so I DID, i've got an alley and a questionable shady idea, is this like masturbation?
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-19
Updated: 2019-10-19
Packaged: 2020-12-24 06:03:53
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,261
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21094610
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ultraviolence/pseuds/ultraviolence
Summary: While gathering intel on a mission together, Saber and Lancer took a little detour and discovered a...particular kind of curiosity. AU.





	a particular curiosity

**Author's Note:**

> I woke up to [this beautiful masterpiece](https://twitter.com/yoowinn_/status/1185346463158550528?s=20) this morning by my sinful twin which was inspired by our own sin and I just had to take it one step further and put this drabble as a nail on my own coffin. Bury me in Prada.
> 
> Please enjoy the kind of big brain sin I and my friends force me and each other to go through daily. Welcome to my hell.

The sky was a big, blinding blue, ringed with white, fluffy clouds, something straight out of a children’s storybook, and staring too long into it feels like falling, like reliving an emotion he couldn’t particularly name.

“I’m sorry to keep you waiting,” a familiar voice brought him back to dry land, the tone mildly apologetic, and he turned slightly to face the owner. “The line’s a bit long. I know we shouldn’t waste time fooling around, but I’m sure Master wouldn’t mind. This will be your first time having coffee outside of Chaldea,” the younger man smiled, slightly, offering him the other cup of coffee he was holding. Both were nearly identical, and when he accepted it from him, curling his own hand around the cup, it was cold, the fleeting jolt a welcome sensation that clears his mind. “I asked for extra whipped cream. I hope you don’t mind. We can say this is your little welcome party, Lancer.”

It still felt like looking at a mirror, one of the funhouse mirrors they have in the modern times, but Saber’s nearly-identical green eyes seemed so sincere, that he nearly felt guilty when he quickly averted his gaze and examined the iced coffee instead.

“It’s fine,” he knows the Alters probably wouldn’t approve and they would probably make fun of them if they knew—they had long suspected that Saber Alter purchased a hidden stash of alcohol from a shady, fifty-something math professor-looking old man (slash Archer-class Heroic Spirit, extra question marks on “hero”)—but most of the time he doesn’t really think that their opinion counts, especially since they spent their days causing trouble around the Observatory and eating junk food. “I don’t mind. I’m not sure if it would be fine to leave Master with just the Shielder, though.”

“You know she’s not just anyone,” Saber sipped his coffee, nonchalantly, suppressing another smile in the meanwhile, and Lancer imitated him, the cold, smoky liquid combined with the melting cream a new, exquisite sensation. He was still adjusting: to life in Chaldea, being a Servant, and, most of all, to being human again even if only as a shadow of it, and every sensation felt quite new, impressive. They must have iced coffee too back in the Observatory, but he was never much of a coffee enthusiast, unlike some. “Master is in very good hands. She’s a fine knight. Some days her inner fortitude quite reminded me of someone.”

A brief silence falls between them, a contemplative one, and he doesn’t quite know where to look. Saber’s eyes seem so far away for a moment, much like the distant blue sky, or a garden that never was, and he felt the jarring emotion again: the sensation of looking into a mirror. This time Lancer didn’t look away.

“Let’s finish while we walk,” Saber quickly suggested, with the briefest hint of another smile—tinged with sadness around the edges, like a blurred outline of the azure world from above—and he nodded, somehow charmed. “This detour could be a little secret between us, but we really shouldn’t dawdle much longer.”

The very human and intimate notion of a secret captivated him, too, but Lancer doesn’t quite know what to say, so he simply gave him another nod, and sipped his coffee as they walked. The sidewalk were full of people, even if it’s not tightly packed, and they slid through the crowd like two nearly-identical ghosts, phantoms from another time. This was not quite a Singularity, but the inventor Caster—who told him once when he accompanied his Master to her workshop that she would definitely give him a “hottie” discount, whatever that means—found an abnormality in this era, and they had been provided with the appropriate casual attires for the field. It seems like they blended in without a hitch, and their Master had said that could most likely pass as brothers or cousins, although for some reason some heads did swivel when they pass and they receive some curious glances anyway.

None of these seemed to bother Saber, who he heard had been summoned to two consecutive Holy Grail Wars in the same era in another timeline, and Lancer’s curiosity of him grows the more time they spent together. He, too, continued to make conversation as they weave their way through the bustling city, gathering information and trying to detect the abnormality, and Lancer listened to him, curiously. It wasn’t just idle, anxious chit-chat, he could tell; the weather was beautiful, the city is lively, and he always had the vague sense that somehow, Saber is happy to see him, even if they don’t always agree on everything, and that makes him feel quite uneasy, because Lancer never knew how to act around him.

They stopped and talked to some people along the way—Saber did most of the talking, anyway, he mostly just watched and listened—as their coffee supply is slowly but surely being depleted, and at some point, they stopped. They’d just conversed briefly with a mother and her son before, and the child—could not be older than seven—liked Saber so much that he called him a prince from a fairy tale. 

The curiosity that has been bubbling up inside of him from the moment that he met his younger self from another timeline is nearly close to bursting, and he stopped walking.

“What’s wrong, Lancer?” Saber turned slightly to face him, an expression of concern marred his handsome, familiar face. 

“It’s nothing,” he responded, nonchalantly, but the look on Saber’s face tells him that he couldn’t possibly fool him, not his younger self, and he quickly amended his words, glancing at the alley beside the drugstore nearby, “actually, I do have a few things I would like to talk about, with you. But I don’t suppose here is the right place to.”

The smaller street they were on now were more or less empty, with only a few people passing by—somehow they had arrived in a quieter part of the city—and he doesn’t know where he’s going with this, not really, but Saber nodded amiably, although he still looked a little curious. 

“We should have some privacy there,” Saber gestured at the alley that he was glancing at earlier, and Lancer gave him his affirmative. They made their way there, and they stepped into the quiet, tucked world of the alley, the endless blue sky shrinking but not diminishing. It wasn’t dirty, at least: there was just a back door to the drugstore at the end of it, but the alley terminated much quicker than one would expected, though it still shields them from the prying eyes of the world. “What do you want to talk about?” 

A lot, he thought, remembering their first conversation some time ago, and the lingering feeling afterwards, of unspoken things. They each have their secrets, intimate creatures clutching at their hearts which kept them awake at night sometimes, but he wondered what Saber’s is.

What his secret desire was. 

It still felt like looking at a mirror, or at a clear, blue waters of a still lake, but instead of words, Lancer stepped forward, fingertips the merest flutter of a dream on the younger man’s chin before he pushed him back and kissed him on the lips, wrapping an arm around his waist. Saber’s surprise didn’t last long, since he kissed him back almost immediately, his mouth warm and tasted a little bit like coffee with a touch of cream, and Lancer seized his wrist, pushing him back to pin him against the wall.

He felt inquisitive, passionate, the new sensations washing over him like a flood he didn’t knew he was expecting, under the endless blue sky in this distant era, and after they broke the kiss for a bit to catch their breath, Lancer kissed him again, slipping his tongue into Saber’s mouth. Saber’s pulse felt hot against his palm, even through the fabric of his glove, and for a moment, he could swear that they were alive, not as shadows of the people that they were, but truly, as human beings.

“…How long?” Saber asked, after they stopped tonguing each other’s mouth curiously, his cheeks flushed, averting his gaze. 

“Does it matter?” Lancer pressed another kiss on his lips, more urgently than before, giving the younger man’s bottom lip a light nip. “Or does it bother you, Saber?”

“I know we’re not supposed to, but…” Saber managed to force himself to meet his gaze, and for a moment Lancer could see desire and curiosity there, naked, suspended in his green eyes like a fly trapped in amber. Saber blushed, and Lancer couldn’t help but kiss him again, deeper, harder, past, present and future all becoming one. “I had to admit, I was curious. It’s hard not to, looking at you. I tried to suppress it, but it really makes me feel miserable. I thought…I thought you didn’t feel the same way.”

Lancer wasn’t quite so good with words, and he thought that they were quite unnecessary most of the times, so instead of reassuring Saber that he felt the same way—he was more than familiar with guilt, he knows that he couldn’t look at Saber partially because he thinks that Saber couldn’t possibly stomach to look at the man he’d become, in another timeline—he leaned in and pressed a kiss on his neck this time, softly at first, merely curious, but it grew into a storm of kisses, and he bit him, lightly, not quite enough to draw blood, just wanting to taste him, to catalogue the sensation in his mind. Saber let out a stifled noise of surprise, in-between his rapid, hitched breathing.

He really quite enjoyed it, he thought, and Lancer slowly dragged his lips on Saber’s neck, teasing him, and bit him again, lower, a little bit harder, in a spot half-hidden by the collar of his dress shirt. This time Saber let out a moan, and Lancer rewarded him by kissing the blooming red mark, his tongue lapping it lightly.

He doesn’t want to stop there, so Lancer continued on, kissing Saber’s neck, down to his collarbone, pushing aside his collar with his hand, sucking and biting him as he goes, marking him here and there, leaving a trail of growing visible hickeys. He could feel Saber dragging his free hand down from his shoulder, sliding it under his shirt, caressing his lower stomach. This is a dangerous game they were playing, since Lancer could feel Saber’s growing hard-on pressed against his thigh, and he felt much of the same thing happening to himself. Moreover, although they have a relative privacy, tucked in an alley like this, anyone passing by could see them, and there is no complete guarantee that no one isn’t just going to walk into the alley and caught them in this position. 

But it can get more interesting still, certainly, and, with Saber’s hand hiking his shirt slowly but surely higher up and exposing a little bit of his abdomen, Lancer stopped and pulled away.

“That should put your doubts to rest, Saber. I think we could continue later, perhaps tonight, after we Rayshift back to the Observatory,” he smiled, satiated for now, a lion after his kill, although he knows that it’s not over yet. “I suppose you don’t mind waiting a bit while longer, do you? After all, I think we should report and rendezvous with Master.”

The thought of Saber suffering for quite a bit for the rest of their stay here, apprehensive but secretly excited and wanting to please him arouses Lancer, and he pushed Saber’s hand away, although not unkindly. He caressed the younger man’s cheek with the back of his knuckle, affectionately, and he was about to give him another kiss, when their communicators rang simultaneously, the noise pushing them back towards reality.

“Yes, I think that really is our cue,” Saber ruefully said, but neither of them made a move to truly pull away. “We should go, Lancer.”

“Before that…” Lancer lowered himself and leaned in again, realising that he was still pinning Saber’s wrist to the wall, moving his hand to the side before he pressed his lips on his wrist, softly, tongue tenderly licking Saber’s pulse on the soft open juncture between his sleeve and his glove. He took the sleek black fabric of Saber’s glove between his teeth and pushed it up, a little, lightly, keeping the younger man’s body pinned to the well with his free hand, and he, too, left a mark there on his wrist. When he finally pulled away, Saber is well and truly flushed, and Lancer suppressed another satisfied smile, licking his lips briefly before coolly straightening up his clothes. “That, too, could also be our little secret.”

He did not say anything else about the inevitable conclusion that would happen that night, but the look that he gave Saber afterwards should make it quite clear, and he thought that it made him shiver, a little, in excitement, but Lancer pretended that he didn’t notice.

They stepped back into the street, into the world, slipping back into their life as shadows, as phantoms, but the memory of Saber’s warmth is still fresh on his mind, and he knows that Saber, too, could still taste him on his lips. 

The big, blinding blue sky above enveloped them, again, and for a brief, fleeting moment, he was alive, again, human, again, and that was more than enough.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading, comments & suggestions are welcome, and if you know me you can laugh at me on twitter or discord or whatever. I deserved to be bullied by the people I know after this. lmao


End file.
